Portland to SF

[tielan]

Travel plans time, mostly for the American portion of the trip.

Portland ~15th December
San Francisco 22nd December

Don't necessarily have to spend time in SF (although I have at least two friends I would like to see), but definitely need to end up there by the 22nd. So maybe arrive in SF on the 21st.

What I'd really like to do is road-trip my way down the West Coast for the week, stopping in small towns and eating in local places. I could maybe drive myself, but I'm not confident driving on the right-hand side of the road, and based off my other experiences travelling solo, I'd like company.

Would also take advice for Western Europe from ~8th-15th, centered around the Netherlands, possibly coming down to Paris (or another major city, I'm not fussed) to fly out to the US.

Anyone got any ideas?

Comments

[jenab]

I'm leaving for Portland in a couple of days.

A friend is taking me here for dinner, which looks like a cool place to check out.

https://www.mcmenamins.com/kennedy-school/soaking-pool

[james]

Driving down the interstate (I-5) is super boring as hell, so definitely you want the coast drive. However, it is a much safer drive and there are towns to stop in almost every 30 minutes at the most.

It would take about two days (stopping for one night halfway down) to drive from Portland, over to the coast, and down to SF, if you don't make a lot of stops so you can use that as a guide for how often you want to stop. Newport is famous for whale-watching, so I'd recommend that stop. (If you drove down from Portland to SF via the interstate you could do it in one day, if you wanted.)

On the other hand, you want to watch out for foggy mornings which make driving tricky (so maybe don't plan to drive on the coastal highway before 9 or 10am) and it is possible to have mudslides close the highway. December is the season of rain, but snow will close mountain passes, so you definitely want to be able to get online to check your travel route each day. There is a mountain range in between the coast and where the interstate is, so you might not always be able to drive across if the coastal highway is closed.

The mountain pass in between Oregon and California can sometimes be closed for snow as well - on the interstate, that is. So again have your phone and internet access to check your route.

I can't offer to come along, because I work retail and December is our blackout time, no one gets any time off.

[wpadmirer]

Pat and I have driven that route in the reverse several times. Northern California will be cool. We're used to warm to hot weather, and we wore sweaters in the summer in San Francisco! And it will be the rainy season in Oregon. But it's all beautiful country.

[tjs_whatnot]

I love that drive! The Oregon coast and northern California are the BEST!

I thought I'd have a problem driving on the other side of the road when I went to Ireland, but it wasn't as hard as I thought. Probably because your on the other side of the car too, so it actually seems familiar? 🤔

♥️♥️

[beatrice_otter]

December 15 is a Friday. I have to be at work on Sunday, and will not at that time have any vacation time left. So I can't volunteer to road-trip with you down to California. However, here are two options. If you decide to take the coast route, I live on the coast near Astoria. You could stop at my place, I could show you around the area, but it's a relatively small area and the tourist season will be over, so this is more like a "stop along your roadtrip" than "yeah, spend a week!" If you choose to go down the valley, my parents live an hour and a half south of Portland. And they have a big house and are always happy to have company. I could be there all day Friday and most of Saturday, but I would have to leave by about 5PM Saturday. My first thought was that I could pick you up in the airport and we could get dinner in Portland and then drive down to my parents' place for the night, and you could rent a car from there to continue your road trip. But that wouldn't leave much time for you to see Portland, which is a cool city. I don't know if you've been there before? Normally I'd say that you should definitely see Multnomah Falls, if you haven't before, but December's not a great time for outdoor stuff and it's off your path. Not too far! A half hour drive east of the city. Other stuff in Portland: Powell's Books, the International Rose Test Garden, the Native American Art Center (I've never been there but I've heard it's great).

The prettiest views roadtripping through Oregon are definitely on 101 along the highway. HOWEVER this is December, it's going to be cold and gloomy and rainy and the rain is always worse along the coast than it is in the valley.

If you decide to drive down the valley (which is the more direct and faster route if you're going through the state and south to California) I would recommend NOT taking I-5. Yes, it is the main Interstate. But it is, like most Interstates, ugly and boring. Instead, Highway 99 is a much smaller (and much prettier) road that winds through a bunch of small towns. There are actually TWO Highway 99s, and this is confusing, so I will explain:

All Interstates in the US have a designation of what direction it goes. Interstates are always multi-lane divided roads with limited access. An Interstate highway that goes north/south will have two names to distinguish them. So I-5 goes north and south, and if you're on the northbound road that is I-5 North and the southbound road is I-5 South, sometimes written as I-5N and I-5S. And the same distinction is made with eastbound/westbound Interstates.

Oregon Highway 99 has a 99E and a 99W. So most people assume that 99 goes east/west. No! It does not! It goes north/south. The east vs. west distinction is which side of the river you're on. The Willamette River is the middle of the Willamette Valley, and it flows north to the Columbia; highway 99 splits in Portland so there's a highway on each side of the river, then joins back together just north of Eugene (where the river is small enough it's not a big divider any more).

[facethestrange]

"What I'd really like to do is road-trip my way down the West Coast for the week, stopping in small towns and eating in local places."
Sounds divine! ♡ Good luck with your travel plans! :) (I can't help because the farthest west I've been in Europe is Germany, and I've never been to the US at all.)